Safety Net
by cleareyesfullhearts7
Summary: AU: Dr. April Hunt is moving to Seattle to be closer to her older brother, Owen. The two surgeons who specialize in trauma must overcome their own and work to find happiness as their past continues to haunt them. Japril/Crowen centric
1. Chapter 1

_This is something I have been thinking about writing for awhile now. I'm a fan of the Owen/April dynamic, and I thought it would be fun to explore an alternate universe where they were siblings. I've altered their histories pretty dramatically to make this work within the story, and plan to reveal those changes as the story progresses. _

_To start with, know that Owen is the chief of staff at GSMH and is married to Cristina. This is going to be a JAPRIL-centric fic with plenty of Crowen. Please read and review… I'd love to know what you're thinking on this one ._

**CHAPTER ONE**

April stepped into the lobby and surveyed her surroundings, taking in the hustle and bustle of an American hospital. The chaos was familiar, almost comforting. Most people would have called it hell, but she thrived on the feeling of not knowing what awaited her when she walked into work.

Not that the past seven years had lacked fulfillment. She had been saving lives in a warzone and sharing her medical school education with doctors who were barely afforded the time to perfect their skills before they were needed in the field. It was a different kind of high – one that left her feeling useful and needed. Yet no matter what she did, she knew it would never be home.

She approached the desk at the end of the room hesitantly, noticing the doctors standing behind it were in an intense discussion. It didn't take a body language expert to realize that whatever the subject at hand was, it had little to do with medicine.

"Excuse me," she cleared her throat, "I'm wondering if one of you can help me find Dr. Hunt."

The blonde doctor across from her looked her up and down before answering her question. "I haven't seen him since earlier this morning. Are you looking for a patient of his?"

April shook her head and cleared her throat. Something about the doctors in front of her made her feel intimidated. "No – uh, I'm family, actually."

The two women looked at each other nervously before the other doctor, who had dark, curly hair, spoke up. "Family? As in Owen's family?"

"Yes, I'm his sister. April Hunt," she answered, extending her hand to introduce herself, "Well, technically, it's Dr. April Hunt. I'm a fellow, well, I mean, I will be after I take my boards. Although, if I hadn't have spent the last several years overseas, I would have taken them last year. But the experience I got over there was pretty incredible… and everybody keeps telling me that it should translate pretty well so that I can pass."

The two women she had been blabbering to exchanged that made it clear they did not care about her medical career. They seemed to be stuck on the fact that she was Owen's sister.

"Stay put," the blonde instructed before pulling her colleague aside. April knew that eavesdropping was wrong, but it didn't stop her. She was curious to know what her new colleagues had to say about her presence in the hospital, and her relationship to their boss. It had taken Owen months to convince her to come to Seattle. She did not want to get a job just because she was his sister, but in the end, she understood why he wanted her close by. It was more exhausting to argue with him than it would be to move across the globe and prove herself as a good surgeon to everybody else in that hospital.

"Did you know the mysterious little sister was coming to town?"

"Of course not," the dark-haired doctor answered. "I would have told you if I was preparing to meet my sister-in-law. We would have prepped with lots and lots of tequila."

_Sister-in-law…_ April was not about to pretend she hadn't heard that phrase.

"I'm sorry," she interrupted them, "But I couldn't help but overhear. Did you just say you're Owen's _wife_?"

* * *

"Hunt!" Derek called out as he hustled down the hallway to catch up with the chief of staff. "What's this about a mixer at Joe's tonight? Callie says it's mandatory."

"For the board, yes," Owen answered, staring at his cell phone and willing it to show a new message. He specifically instructed April to call him when she got to Chicago for her layover, which was supposed to happen an hour ago. It took everything he had not to leave her a twenty-first voicemail demanding for her to check in. "The new trauma surgeon is starting this afternoon, and since she missed the new employee orientation by a few months, I think it's best that as many doctors as possible show up tonight and make her feel welcome."

"Do you really think it's fair for the chief of surgery to throw special parties for a new surgeon just because she's in your department?"

"Derek –"

"Look, Owen, I know that you need more help in the pit, and I'm happy that you that you have a new student to teach, but Meredith and I are both on the board, and babysitters are hard to come by, so we're going to need to pass."

"Shepherd, I'd consider it a personal favor to me if you and Meredith would please come to Joe's tonight, ok?"

The neurosurgeon frowned. "Why is this so important to you?"

Owen stopped in his tracks and sighed. "She's not just a new employee, okay? She's my little sister."

"Your sister?"

"Yes, and she's been working for Doctors Without Borders since she graduated from med school. It's going to be a big adjustment for her to come back to the states, and I thought it would be nice for her to make some friends."

"Cristina didn't say anything to Meredith about your sister moving to Seattle," Derek thought aloud.

"Well, I haven't really had a chance to tell Cristina. I'm on my way to tell her now."

Derek chuckled as he continued around the corner. "You are moving your little sister halfway across the world to live in the same city and work at the same hospital, and you are just telling your wife – one of the twisted sisters – today? Hunt, you are a brave man. A stupid man, but brave nevertheless."

Owen followed him and, once again, halted in his path when he spotted his Cristina and Meredith talk to April across the room. Sure, telling Cristina that his sister was moving to Seattle to be Grey Sloan Memorial's newest surgeon hours before April arrived was risky. But not telling his wife before said sister showed up in the hospital? That was suicidal. All he could do was put on a happy face and pray for a miracle.

"What are you doing here so early, Chuck?" he started as he approached his sister and pulled her into a hug. "Your flight wasn't supposed to get in for four more hours."

Even though April was more than irritated with her brother for neglecting to mention his marriage, she found herself burying her face in his lab coat and taking solace in the feeling of safety that washed over her when he called her by her childhood nickname and wrapped her in his arms. It had been years since she had felt so secure.

"I wanted to get in early to surprise you, so I switched my flight to yesterday and got in late last night."

"Last night?" he asked with a frown. "Why didn't you call? Where did you stay?"

She reluctantly pulled away from him and glanced at Cristina and her friend, who were clearly unhappy about the conversation occurring in front of them. It was evident that Owen had neglected to tell them about her arrival.

"It was really late, and I got a room at a hotel by the airport. And before you say anything, it's a perfectly nice hotel in a good neighborhood, and I'll be staying there until I find my own apartment. So don't even ask me to stay with you, because I won't impose on your or _your wife_."

Owen looked over at Cristina, who was glaring at him. When his eyes returned to his sister, she was giving him a similar look.

"I find it so funny that we have video chatted weekly for years, and you completely neglected to tell me you got _married_. Did she even know I existed?" April inquired.

"Of course she did," he started.

"She just didn't know that you were moving to Seattle to work here, at this hospital, where she happens to sit on the board," Meredith added spitefully.

"Dr. Grey, would you mind showing April around and getting her to HR so that she can take an afternoon shift in the pit?" Owen asked, knowing that he needed to smooth things over with Cristina.

"Fine," Meredith groaned, grabbing her tablet and pushing her way past Owen. April shook her head at him before following behind her. Owen took Cristina's hand and led her into a nearby conference room.

"I was really going to tell you about April coming, I swear," he started explaining as soon as they were alone. "It's just, well, I knew you were going to get nervous about finally meeting her, and I wanted to tell you at the right time. But we haven't really had enough time to talk in the last few weeks. And, yes, I should have told her we are married. And… and I screwed up big time."

"You think?" Cristina questioned with a laugh. He expected screaming and anger, not laughter.

"What? Why are you laughing?"

"I never noticed your tendency to ramble until I met your sister. Now I realize that it's a family trait," she grinned, patting him on the shoulder as she moved to the door. "I'm going to leave you here to think about all the different ways you can make this up to me while I go check on my clinical trial patients."

* * *

(9 p.m., Joe's Bar)

"Where is this new chick, anyway?" Alex complained before taking a swig of his beer and taking a seat on the stool next to Jackson at the bar.

"What do you have to whine about?" Jackson asked. "It's not like you have anywhere to be since Jo's on call, and Hunt's paying for all of the drinks. You have no reason to be in a hurry."

"True," Alex conceded, "But that doesn't mean I want to be at some lame mixer. The only reason I showed up was to check out the new girl. Kevin says she's hot."

"You have a girlfriend," his friend reminded him.

"Doesn't mean I can't check her out," Alex argued. "The way I see it, I'm just giving Banks a second opinion. That is, unless you've decided to take off your chastity belt and want to give him some competition."

Jackson rolled his eyes and sipped on his drink. He had been single for over a year, and while he was happy focusing on his work, it was draining to put up with his friends' constant teasing. Sometimes he thought it would be easier to just pick up a woman every once in a while to keep them quiet.

"What are we competing for?" Cristina asked as she and Meredith joined them. "Because whatever it is, I'll save you some time. I win."

"Good point," Alex laughed, "Yang will probably have a better chance of taking the new trauma surgeon to bed than you."

"Oh, you mean my sister-in-law who just found out I existed?" Cristina groaned, taking her tequila from Meredith's hands.

"Sister-in-law?" Jackson questioned. "As in Hunt's sister?"

"That's the one," Meredith chimed in. "She's the new trauma surgeon. That's why he made such a big deal about this party. Turns out Cristina's married to some super over-protective big brother who's hired his baby sister and moved her across the globe."

"So is she a redhead, too?" Alex inquired. "Is she as hot as Banks says she is?"

"You're a pig, and I'm going to tell Jo," Meredith chastised him, shoving him off of his stool and into Jackson, who dumped half of his drink into his lap. He shoved Alex away from him just as Owen cleared his throat behind them.

"And here are some of our other fellows. Everybody, this is Dr. Hunt, our new trauma surgeon."

The rest of the doctors turned around to greet them while Jackson worked to dry off his pants with a handful of napkins. The way he saw it, having scotch-soaked pants was the icing on the cake after the day he had. He started the morning getting thrown up on, then lost a patient in the afternoon. All he wanted to do was go home and call it a night. Unfortunately for him, being in charge of the hospital meant putting on a happy face and making nice with a new doctor even when he didn't feel like talking to anyone.

"You met Dr. Grey and Cristina earlier," Owen told April. "This is Dr. Alex Karev, our pediatrics fellow. And Dr. Avery here is from plastics. He's also the chair of the board."

Jackson shoved the used napkins across the bar and spun around with an extended hand and fake smile to greet Owen's sister. It wasn't until he heard her breath catch in her throat that he noticed exactly who it was standing in front of him.

"April?"

"Jackson," she exhaled quietly.

"You two know each other?" Owen questioned as he looked between the two of them.

"We… uh…" April stuttered.

"We were engaged," Jackson answered without looking away from April's face.


	2. Chapter 2

_All I can say is WOW! Thank you all so much for reading the first chapter and your reviews. I never expected so many people to be interested in this story. Hopefully this next chapter doesn't disappoint._

**CHAPTER TWO**

Several minutes had passed since Jackson had revealed how he and April knew one another. Or perhaps it had been hours. It was difficult for him to judge the time and he was not about to let her out of his sight to check his watch.

She had walked out of his life seven years ago and never looked back. He was angry with her, sure. Yet none of those negative feelings were enough motivation for him to look away from the face he now realized he had been missing every minute of every day for all of those years.

And somehow, her standing in front of him was not another cruel dream. It was reality. April was in Seattle, working at the hospital that his family's foundation owned – the same hospital that he had been running for the past year. Even more surprising, her brother was the same Dr. Hunt that he had worked with every day for the past four years.

Jackson remembered how she had spoken about her brother. She told him that after her parents died, her brother raised her on his own while putting himself through medical school. She worshiped him. It was only in the present moment that he realized she never mentioned his name.

It wasn't until April broke their gaze to look toward Owen that he fell out of the spell she had cast over him and allowed himself to hear the voices around them.

"You were _engaged? _To each other?" Meredith repeated. "How? When?"

"Nice Avery," Alex laughed from behind him.

"Avery was the guy from med school?" Owen questioned April.

"Yes," she admitted softly, staring down at her feet.

"Hold on," Alex interrupted. "You two have worked in the same hospital for years and never realized that Avery was screwing your sister while they were in medical school?"

"Watch it, Karev," Owen growled.

Cristina, who had been unusually silent, chose that moment to break out into laughter. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

April pulled her lower lip between her teeth, the same way Jackson had seen her do before every exam they had taken in medical school. Her anxiety was subtle to everyone else in the room, but to him, it was palpable. Thousands of miles and years worth of time had not changed his ability to read her.

"You know what? I'm feeling pretty exhausted," she spoke softly. "I really appreciate all of this, the party and the introductions… but I think the jetlag is getting to me. I'm going to catch a cab back to the hotel."

"I'll give you a ride," Owen offered.

"That's not necessary," she started, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"You shouldn't be out in a city you don't know by yourself."

"No!" April snapped. "Just – don't, okay? I really just need some time alone. I don't need a babysitter, especially not you."

A part of Jackson wanted to follow her when she stormed out of the bar. But the part that still harbored resentment for the way things ended between them won out. He turned around to leave money on the bar for his drink and immediately felt swarmed by the other doctors around him.

"Why have you never told us you were engaged?" Meredith asked him. "I thought we were all friends here."

"It was a lifetime ago," he answered, pushing past all of them toward the exit. "We were classmates, then we were friends. We started dating, got engaged, and then we weren't. End of story."

"What happened?" she continued questioning him.

Jackson shook his head. He knew they were all his friends, but even if he wanted to explain to them why his relationship with April ended, he couldn't. He still did not understand it himself. One day, they were filled with excitement about planning a wedding and starting their intern year, and the next, she was gone. He had invested a lot of time and energy into trying to answer the question Meredith had posed, and he was not about to open an old wound just to satisfy his friends' cravings for gossip.

"I'm going home," he informed them just before he marched out the door.

* * *

(5 a.m., Next morning, Cristina and Owen's Loft)

Owen poured himself a cup of coffee and paced around his kitchen. His nightmares had been infrequent since he completed his therapy for his PTSD, but he had not been so lucky over the past few weeks. He had been hopeful that April's safe arrival would calm his fears and allow him to get a restful night's sleep. Unfortunately, all it had done was bring on a whole new kind of stress.

"Owen," Cristina yawned from across the room in their bed. "Did you get paged?"

He cursed himself for making noise and waking her up. She was definitely angry with him, even though she refused to express it. Instead, she spent the evening before hammering him with questions about his sister and what he knew about her previous relationship with Jackson Avery.

What he had told her was the truth – he had been serving his first tour in Iraq while April attended medical school. She had written to him about a boyfriend, but never mentioned his name. He had no idea that the man she had been so in love with had been working alongside him for all this time.

By the time they completed that conversation, Cristina had drifted to sleep. He knew this kind of anger from his wife. It was worse than when she screamed at him or cried. This was the type of bitterness that left him feeling guiltier than any of her other reactions could have.

"No, I just couldn't sleep," he answered softly. "Go back to sleep. You don't have to be into work until later."

"Neither do you. But something tells me that you're not heading to the hospital."

Of course she had to be right. Cristina Yang was rarely wrong. It was what he loved and hated about her. She knew that he had been pacing, just waiting for the sun to start coming up so he could drive to April's hotel and check on her.

"I just need to know she's alright," he explained, crossing the room to sit beside her on the bed. He pulled her into him, letting her settle into his chest. "And I need you to know that I'm so incredibly sorry for not telling you that I was bringing her here. It wasn't fair to you."

"You were probably right to hold off," she admitted with a yawn. "I mean, if I would have been warned in advance, I probably would have run away to Meredith's house in the woods to hide."

Owen smirked. "True. But now you've met my sister. April is smart and strong, sure. But she's hardly intimidating."

Cristina laughed. "Unless your name is Jackson Avery."

* * *

(7 a.m., Attendings' Lounge)

April stared at the journal in front of her and sighed. She had read the same article four times already. Unfortunately that had been in her hotel room, which was apparently adjacent to a honeymooning couple who didn't believe in recovery time. After two hours of crying into her pillow the previous evening, she realized she was not going to get any sleep, so she resorted to preparing for her boards. But karma proved to have a sense of humor when the newlyweds refused to take a break from their lovemaking to get some sleep.

Not that she would have accomplished much in the way of studying, even if she had been in complete silence. Her mind kept drifting back to the look on Jackson's face when they came face-to-face the previous night. She used to be able to read his expressions in any situation, but she had failed the evening before. She imagined it was a combination of shock, anger and confusion. At least, that's what she knew he should be feeling towards her.

The door to the lounge swung open quickly, causing her to gasp and slam the journal shut. In any other circumstance, she would have willed her heart rate to go back to normal quickly. But when she looked up and saw that it was Jackson, she knew there was no hope.

"Sorry to startle you," he murmured softly and turned to leave, "I'll come back in a few minutes."

"You don't have to," she argued, "Leave, I mean… I can go study somewhere else."

He stopped and turned back slowly to face her. "What are you studying for?"

"I'm taking my boards next month."

"Your boards? Why didn't you take them two years ago, after the fifth year of your residency?" he questioned. April sensed from his tone that his interest was not as a friend or even an ex-fiancé, but rather as a board member checking up on his new staff.

"I got reassigned to Syria three years ago. Our team there was pretty small, and I would have needed to take two weeks off to come back to the states for the boards. I just couldn't leave them short on staff."

"Syria?" he responded sharply. "What was wrong with Africa? Was it not far enough for you to run away anymore?"

She inhaled deeply, taking in his bitterness. She knew she deserved it, but it didn't make it hurt any less. "Jackson, I owe you an explanation."

"No, you don't," he argued, "Not anymore. The appropriate time for an explanation would have been before you snuck out of my apartment in the middle of the night to catch the first plane out of the country."

"Jackson," she started, fighting back tears as she remembered how sick she had been to leave.

"Or how about when I was standing in front of you in that airport in Malawi begging you to help me understand why you ran away from us? Those would have been great times for you to explain your reasoning to me. But now – after seven years? It's a little late for that."

Malawi was another painful memory. That day had been the only time she had ever seen him cry. After his plane left, she cried for days on end.

"I have felt sick about that every day," she explained. "And I don't expect you to forgive me. I know that's probably impossible. I just – I didn't know you were here. I wouldn't have come if I did…"

Before she could continue with her explanation, Owen barged into the room. "April, I've been looking everywhere for you. I need to see you for a minute."

She looked between her brother and Jackson before addressing Owen. "I don't want to talk to you right now."

"Well, I'm very sorry about that. But it can't wait. So let's go."

"Owen!" she argued.

"Just go," Jackson instructed. "We're done here anyway."

She knew he didn't just mean they were done with their conversation, and it stung. She hadn't been living with hope that the two of them would reunite. In fact, she never anticipated being in the same room with Jackson again. But now that they were going to be seeing each other every day, she found herself wanting his forgiveness. He had been her best friend for so many years, and if there was a way she could get that friendship back, she wanted to fight for it.

But in that moment, she decided to give him the space he requested. She followed Owen out of the room and into the elevator with her arms crossed in front of her chest. She hated that he was now her boss, because even though she was angry with him, she had to listen to him. April cursed herself for not realizing that before she got on the plane to come to Seattle.

When the elevator doors opened, the brisk air flowed in and caught her by surprise. They were on the hospital roof, but there was not a helicopter there, so he obviously wasn't bringing her in on a trauma case. She stepped off of the elevator with him and waited for the lecture she had been anticipating.

"I need to know exactly how much he knows," Owen demanded with his hands on his hips.

"Excuse me?"

"Avery. You need to tell me everything you have told him," he barked.

"How much have you told Cristina?" she argued.

"That's irrelevant," Owen countered, "Cristina is my wife."

"And Jackson would be my husband right now if you hadn't blown that apart!" she exploded.

"You're blaming _me_ now?"

"Of course I blame you!" April yelled. "You were the one who showed up in Boston just as I was about to start the next chapter of my life telling me that I would never be able to have a happy ending! You convinced me that you and I were never going to be able to have successful marriages because of our past! And you are the same person who has been pleading with me to come to Seattle for months now, all the while neglecting to mention that you got married _years_ ago, and that the man I walked away from under your orders just happens to run this hospital!"

"I didn't know that Jackson Avery was the guy from medical school until last night," Owen explained, maintaining his composure. "And you and I both know why you had to leave back then. You can blame me all you want, but it was unavoidable. Now answer my question. How much does he know?"

"What if I told you he knows all of it? Every last detail," she answered spitefully, unwilling to admit that her brother was right. The thought of her unhappiness being inevitable stung worse than the resentment she had been feeling since finding out that Owen was married.

"April…"

She sighed. "I only told him your version of our story… that we grew up in Cleveland and that our parents died in a car accident when I was fourteen and you raised me after that."

"So he doesn't know the truth?" Owen clarified, clearly relieved that she had spend her entire relationship with Jackson lying about her childhood. She found it ironic that a man with so much integrity had been terrified that she might have shared the truth with someone that she trusted.

"No, he doesn't."

"Thank God," he exhaled as if it were the first moment he had been able to breathe in days.

"Not yet," she added.

"Damn it, April!"

"I'm going to tell him everything, Owen. You have Cristina to talk to now. Jackson and I… well, we're probably never going to be anything more than colleagues or maybe even friends. But he means something to me, and I need to tell him before the guilt about leaving him eats me alive."

"Cristina doesn't know," he argued, "And she's not going to. Neither is Jackson."

"You've been lying to your wife this whole time?" she questioned. "That's messed up. It was a lifetime ago, Owen. You should really get over this whole running and hiding thing…"

"How do you not understand this!?" he yelled, reaching forward and holding her shoulders as if he could force her to focus on what he was trying to tell her. "I didn't just call you out of the blue to come to Seattle because I missed you. If that were the case, I would have done so years ago!"

April's anger quickly dissipated into anxiety. "What are you saying?"

"They reopened your file as a cold case six months ago. Bringing you here is the only way I know how to make sure you stay safe," he explained softly. "They're looking for you again, Chuck."


	3. Chapter 3

_I am so sorry for the long hiatus. I have rewritten this chapter a few times, and I think I was probably being too picky about it. I am so overwhelmed with the response this story has gotten. Thank you all for reading and reviewing - it means the world to me!_

_I promise that it will not be another three months until an update is posted... I've already started rolling on chapter four. As for the cliffhanger at the end of the second chapter, you'll have more answers soon :)  
_

**CHAPTER THREE**

"_Jackson, you do realize that we only have two hours – wait, no, more like one hour and 48 minutes left until this exam, right? And it's not just any exam… it's a big, scary, life-changing exam that could very much determine the rest of our careers, not to mention our lives."_

_He ignored her paranoia and continued trailing kisses down her neck and across her right shoulder, which was made bare due to the way his oversized t-shirt hung off of her body. _

"_Mmm, I do, but I also realize that you perform best when you release some of that tension. And, lucky for you, I happen to have an excellent technique for that release."_

"_Is this what the rest of our life is going to be like?" she asked, letting a soft moan escape her lips. "Me stressing out about the MCATs, and then the intern exam and eventually our boards? And you providing distraction after distraction?"_

"_Well, I remember you accepting my marriage proposal, so yeah. That's exactly what it's going to be like."_

The shrill buzzing coming from his pager pulled Jackson out of his memory-induced dream. In the months since April had reappeared in his life, he had practically relived their entire relationship in his dreams. However, the moments in his subconscious had been the extent of their interactions, as they had been successfully avoiding one another everywhere else.

When April had first shown up in Seattle, he still carried resentment toward her. Yet, at the same time, a small part of him wanted to find a way for them to find a friendship once again. He watched her from afar, and he could tell that she was struggling. Transitioning from working in a warzone to being a surgeon at a world-class hospital would be a difficult task for any doctor, but April had the seemingly insurmountable task of preparing for her boards on top of it.

As far as he could tell, she was isolating herself and trying to handle it all on her own. According to the hospital rumor mill, April was angry with her brother and barely speaking to him. Cristina seemed relieved, especially when her sister-in-law refused Owen's invitation to stay with them and chose to rent a room in the house Alex, Jo and Kevin Banks shared. While nobody seemed to know why the Hunt siblings were fighting, Jackson knew April well enough to know any grudge that kept her at odds with her brother for this long must have been serious.

He jogged into trauma room 3, where his paged had directed him, and frowned to find it empty. He turned around and caught Jo's attention as she wheeled a patient past.

"What's going on? Someone just paged me here."

"Banks asked me to call for you, but apparently Hunt got impatient and brought the patient up to OR 2. I'm guessing you can find them up there."

"That's freaking fantastic. I got down here within ninety seconds of the page," Jackson groaned. He rushed up to the operating room and flipped on the intercom so he could get an update on the patient while he scrubbed in. The first voice he heard was April's.

"I've got the bleeding in the abdomen under control. His stats should be coming up now."

"See, you're a natural. It would have taken me twice as long to find the source of the bleed. There's no way you didn't pass the boards," Kevin's voice answered. "And when you get the news that you passed, we'll have a celebratory dinner, on me."

Jackson felt a wave of jealousy flow through him. Kevin Banks had been in his intern class at Mercy West, and he considered him a good friend. They had their differences, though, and most of them had to do with their approaches toward dating. Since April had left him, Jackson had dated a few women here and there. He even had a relationship that lasted six months. But he didn't do one night stands, and he tried not to waste any time with women that he couldn't envision a future with.

Kevin, on the other hand, was a serial dater. In the years Jackson had known him, he had never spent more than two nights with the same woman. He was a good surgeon, but when it came to the opposite sex, the man had the attention span of a toddler.

Jackson finished scrubbing, marched into the operating room and cleared his throat. "Sorry I couldn't be here sooner. For some ridiculous reason, I was paged to the pit rather than the OR."

"Yeah, Avery, sorry about that," Kevin started, "The guy was crashing fast. But lucky for him, Hunt's a rock star. She gave him a trach in the elevator on the way up here, found the bleeder in no time and now we're working on fixing his spleen."

It was one thing to overhear Kevin flirting with April, but the fact that the guy continued to do so in front of him really pissed Jackson off. He approached the table and surveyed the patient.

"Well, rock star might be a stretch," he argued, "Considering these incisions are a mess."

"What?" April questioned, raising her gaze to meet his.

"I could see how you find this kind of approach effective in a war zone, Dr. Hunt, but here, we cut for precision so that our patients won't have horrible scars to remind them of a day that was quite possibly the worst of their lives."

"I-uh… I thought I was pretty precise…"

"You weren't," he answered harshly, "And you would do well to remember that for the next time you choose to take matters into your own hands before the backup you requested arrives."

"Avery, chill out," Kevin started. "She made a call."

"And it was the wrong call!" Jackson argued. "Now if we can please just focus on the patient, I have a lot of work to do to clean up this mess."

* * *

(Later that night, Joe's Bar)

"What about that one?" Alex asked Jackson, pointing to a blonde woman who looked barely legal across the bar. "She may look like she's in high school, but she's got easy written all over her."

"It's unbelievable that they let you work with children all day," Jackson commented as he finished off his beer and signaled to the bartender for another. "And I told you I didn't come here trolling for sex. I just wanted to have a few beers to help forget about my crappy day."

"Then why are we here? We could be drinking better beer for a lot cheaper at my house," Alex argued, pulling out some cash and leaving it on the bar to cover their tab.

"We're not going to your house," Jackson groaned. He had been hoping to get his mind off of April, which would be practically impossible if he wound up drunk and sleeping on the couch in the same house where she was living.

"Seriously?" Alex questioned "Because of April? You're still hung up on her, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not hung up on my ex after seven years," Jackson argued.

"Are you sure? Because now that I think about it, you haven't been over to my place once since she moved in. And Jo told me that you were in surgery with her today, which probably explains why you've been pouting like a baby since we left the hospital."

"I'm not hung up on April," Jackson reiterated with irritation in his voice. "It's just uncomfortable… being around her is uncomfortable."

Alex noticed April walk into the bar and chuckled. "Well, then get ready to be uncomfortable."

Before Jackson could pay for his drinks and sneak out, April approached them and cleared her throat softly.

"Jackson… I mean, Dr. Avery… is there any chance I could have a moment of your time?"

He knew from the way her voice was shaking that she was nervous and that it was his tirade in the operating room that made her nervous to be around him. No matter how uncomfortable it was for him to be around her, he didn't want to be the man who made her nervous. He stood up, dropped some money on the bar and finally made eye contact with her.

"Let's step outside," he suggested, leading the way through the bar to the alley behind. Once they were alone in the reflection of the floodlights behind Joe's, he noticed April wringing her hands together as she paced back and forth in front of a dumpster.

"I was out of line today," she started. "Taking that patient up to the OR before you got to the pit was out of line, and I'm sorry. I should have followed protocol instead of making a call. I know I made the wrong call."

Jackson found it almost impossible to ignore her facial expressions as she apologized to him. He tried to imagine that it was any other surgeon in front of him, not the woman who had been haunting his dreams for longer than he could remember. But when she looked at him with that sparkle in her eye that precluded tears, he only saw April Hunt, the woman he had planned to spend his life with all those years ago.

"You were trying to save the patient's life. Maybe it wasn't the right call, but I know why you made it. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that," he admitted. "Just don't let it happen again."

She stopped pacing for a moment and looked him straight in the eye. "My being here is not good for you. I know that. And believe me, if I could get on a plane tonight and make this easier for you, I would, because I owe you that much. But I can't… I can't for a lot of reasons that I realize you probably don't want to hear. And that's your right, especially after all I've put you through. It's also your right to say no to this next thing I need to ask you…"

She took a small step toward him, and while there was still enough distance between them to make it impossible for him to touch her, the gesture was not lost on Jackson.

"What is it?" he asked softly.

"I don't want to leave my patients with scars that will be constant reminders of the worst days of their lives. Sometimes I see the way you look at me, and I think I'm a scar for you… I remind you of this terrible moment in your life when I broke your heart, and I hate being your scar."

She choked back a tear before continuing.

"I need to be a better doctor to my patients than I was a fiancée to you. And I know in order to do that, I need help. You're one of the best plastics fellows in the country. And on top of that, you singlehandedly got me through most of medical school, so I know you're a good teacher."

"You want me to help you?" he questioned.

She nodded. "I know you're super busy running the hospital, and you have a packed surgical schedule. But I am willing to put in the time. And I can pay you or something."

He smirked. "What exactly is the hourly rate for surgical tutors these days?"

"More than I can afford," she smiled. "But I'm still really good with administrative work. I could help you catch up on paperwork or something."

Jackson knew that he was going to agree to help her before she even asked. He just needed to remember he was doing her a favor as a colleague for the better of the hospital. It had nothing to do with their personal history.

"Meet me in the skills lab at 5 a.m. tomorrow. And you're in charge of bringing the coffee."

"Really?" she asked with a smile. "You'll do it?"

He shrugged. "I mean, I am one of the best and you work in my hospital… why not? Plus, I hate paperwork, so it's a good trade."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow," she replied, moving back toward the door before she gave into her impulse to hug him.

"Yep, tomorrow," he repeated, turning in the opposite direction to leave. He only made it a few steps before stopping and calling for her. "Hey April?"

"Yeah?" she answered, turning back to face him.

"I don't see a scar when I look at you. You are so many different things to me, but you are definitely not my scar."


End file.
